97 recipes, newest first. Most are easy dinner recipes sized for a weeknight — thirty to sixty minutes, one or two pans, and ingredients from an ordinary grocery store.
The rest is what goes around dinner: soup recipes for a cold evening, salads and side dishes, desserts, and a few sauces worth keeping in the fridge. Every one has been cooked and written here, with the timings and quantities that actually worked.
A light chocolate sponge soaked overnight in chocolate-laced evaporated milk, condensed milk and cream, topped with cocoa whipped cream. Rich, cold and soft without ever being soggy.
Crisp, fluffy homemade tater tots: russets parboiled whole, grated, squeezed dry and seasoned, shaped into small logs, chilled, then fried golden. They freeze well for later.
Hawaii's favorite plate lunch: a bed of white rice, a seared hamburger steak, a rich brown onion and mushroom gravy made in the same pan, and a runny fried egg on top.
Seasoned sushi rice pressed into a dish, topped with a creamy salmon and imitation crab mixture, baked until golden and drizzled with spicy mayo and eel sauce. Scoop it onto roasted seaweed.
Classic lemon bars with a crisp, buttery shortbread base baked first, a bright fresh-lemon filling baked low until just set, and a dusting of powdered sugar.
Southern fried green tomatoes: firm, tart slices salted to draw out water, dredged in seasoned flour, buttermilk and a cornmeal crust, and pan-fried golden. Served with a quick remoulade.
Tart and sweet apples baked soft under a crunchy oat, brown sugar and cold-butter topping, with juices thick enough to hold on a spoon.
Onions cooked slowly to deep brown, simmered in beef stock with a splash of wine, and finished under the broiler with toasted baguette and bubbling Gruyère.
Four hours unattended, then five minutes under the broiler for the crust a slow cooker cannot give you.
Thick wedges roasted until the edges char and the core turns sweet, under a cold garlic yogurt.
Parboiled first so the grill only has to char them. Twelve minutes over the coals, not forty.
Sausage, spinach and a cream broth built over four hours. The gnocchi go in for the last thirty minutes.
Creamy, mushroomy and thick with grain. The wild rice cooks separately because it takes three times as long as anything else.
A full plate timed so everything arrives hot. The biscuits go in the oven first and the eggs are cooked last.
Beets roasted in foil until they slip out of their skins, with salty feta and walnuts toasted to the edge of burning.
Sugar cookie bases, cream cheese frosting, fresh fruit on top. Assembled within an hour of eating.
Stovetop, stirred, and finished with egg yolks off the heat. Loose when it comes off, set by the time it reaches the table.
Seared sirloin, tomato, mozzarella and basil on a stick, finished with a balsamic glaze you reduce yourself.
Italian sausage browned hard for its fond, deglazed with wine, and finished into a clinging sauce with cream, Parmesan and pasta water.
Six green fruits, a honey lime dressing, and nothing brown. The dressing is what stops the apples turning.
A whole chicken poached into its own stock, then shredded back in. The noodles cook separately and that is not fussiness.
Caramelized at the edges, soft inside. High heat, a hot tray, and enough space between the cubes.
Soft-curd eggs folded into melted cheddar between buttered, mayonnaise-crusted bread.
A Reuben sandwich in a fried wrapper. The sauerkraut has to be wrung dry or the whole thing bursts.